A Rainy June, Herbally Speaking!

My Purchases from Beech Creek Botanical Garden & Nature Preserve!

Basil in a Container Until the Temperatures Heat Up!

Beneficial Insect Found the Calendula Flower Right Away!

And So Too the Rue Flowers!

The Lemon Balm Scented Geranium is Flowering!

I Know I Have Written About This Rose!  Can't Remember the Name!

The Yarrow is Blooming As Well!

My herbal companion, Bonnie and I had a splendid day at Beech Creek Botanical Garden & Nature Preserve in Alliance, Ohio.  We were pleasantly surprised by the school buses with children learning about nature and gardening.  They don't have nearly the selection of herbs that they did at their previous location, Lily of the Valley Herb Farm.  The quality of their plants is very good.

Well, well, well, June is busting out all over here in the 'Burgh!  We have had so much rain over the past few weeks.  Almost every day The Herbal Husband reports that we have received an inch of rain!  My weeds are letting me know how good it is for them.  I have voluminous amounts of weeds in the bad bag and still it keeps raining.

As you can see from the sampling of herbs and flowers in the photos, the rain has helped in great measure to liven up the landscape.  The mild winter helped as well.  I had verbena bonariensis come back from the plant itself.  I think they generally self sow here.  I have also lost some plants that I thought would come through.  The French tarragon had two very tiny stalks.  They didn't last.  Although my Texas tarragon that was in a container in the basement all winter is flourishing!   I thought a chocolate flower that never is hardy here, was going to make it through.  Sadly it died.  I also wanted to mention that we put the sweet basils I purchased into a container because we have not been consistently in the 80's in the daytime and the 60's at night.  Basils do not enjoy cold soils!  May was a beautiful month for gardens here and June is on pace to be equally as nice.

Hope you are having a great day in your herb garden and you will stop by from time to time to check out what is going on in my herb garden.  I have started the process of cutting my chive blossoms.  Make some chive blossom vinegar if you have some that haven't gone past!  Just go out and enjoy the beauty of your herb garden every chance you get.  You will get pleasure from growing fresh herbs!  Talk to you soon!

This Might Be in the Herbal Mystery Giveaway Box!

Ooh, Looks Like a Bit of Herbal Vinegar for the Winner!

One of the easiest and most festive gifts this time of year or anytime of the year is herbal vinegar.  I used to make a ton of flavors and lots.  Now I only make what I think I can use promptly, herbally speaking.  I'll keep the flavor a secret.  Maybe you have already guessed.  I would use herbal vinegar for, of course, salad dressings, but also they are used in stews and marinades and to deglaze a pan when you are making a sauce.  Here is a link to how easy it is to make herbal vinegar.  Hey I wrote a pretty great post about making herbal vinegar if I do say so myself!  One of my favorite salad dressing books with history on where the dressings came from is by Jim Long.  The Best Dressed Salad is available on his website, Long Creek Herbs.  (This book is just a suggestion.  Not part of the giveaway box.)

One of My Favorite Herbal Authors, Jim Long!

So winter temperatures have hit us and when you aren't used to them, they can bite!  At least there is no snow at the moment.  Hope you are having a great day.  I have a list a mile long to work on.  Soo don't forget if you are a U.S. reader and you are interested in the giveaway, please leave a comment here or on the right side of my homepage.  I will talk to you tomorrow!

Purple Basil Gives You Purple. . . and Other Harvesting Tips!

vinegar!  Isn't this the prettiest color? I get caught up in the little details of everything and forget about some of the important pluses of herb harvesting.  We planted the basils in my French bowl and they have been doing well.  So well that I need to start harvesting them and making herbal stuff.  So what you see is in a quart canning jar.  Even though it is a quart, it holds about 3-1/2 cups of liquid once the herbs are in the jar.  So I would guess that I have about one cup of basil in the jar along with white wine vinegar.  I will be adding more basil to the mix and then wait about two weeks and try it and bottle it for gifts or use it for salad dressing.  You could also use red wine vinegar, but I would use regular basil instead of the purple.  Rice Vinegar would also be a good choice for basil.   I just would not use plain old white vinegar.  Use that for cleaning!

Bonnie and I were talking this morning about our 'Clevelandii' sages we got last fall from our Ohio herb buddy, Kathleen Gips.  I said I wanted to harvest some of my leaves as it was getting very tall.  She said mine flowered and hers has not gotten as tall as mine has!  So my extension agent, Sandy Feather, used to tell me when you couldn't get a plant to flower or fruit in a container, stress it out a bit.  The more pampering it gets the more lush in leaves it becomes and it won't produce flowers or fruit.  Bonnie neglected her sage a bit hence the flowers.  You also want to be cutting about one-third of most herb plants so that it will keep producing leaves.

We are slowly coming down in humidity and temperature.  Looks like tomorrow will be a delightful day and I am hoping to get the herbs that I bought a couple of weeks ago into the ground finally.  This has been a long season.  I always like surprises in the garden and Bonnie has given me her elecampane and I am just figuring out where to put it so it will be a surprise!  I will let you know where it goes!  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be!  I will talk to you tomorrow!

Herbal Containers With Rain and Heat!

Some Years Our Patio Is Just As Interesting As the Garden!

The Container with Rosemary, Sage and Thyme is Wonderful!

The Pot of Herbs de Provence is Growing Wildly!

The Silver Herbs in the Gray Container is Doing Well!

So Exciting!  A Swallowtail Caterpillar Eating the Dill in the Container!

The Salads and Sauces Container Needs a Harvest!

A Nice Little Herb Garden!

I just can't seem to blog these days.  I think I am struggling taking and uploading photos from my phone and then getting the time to post something.  It rained so much that I lost herbs in the ground and now it is so hot that I have lost more herbs in the ground.  I'm at a loss for words.  So we have turned to the herbal containers that I made in May for the class with the Long Vue Acres Garden Club.  Ladies and gentlemen, the containers are looking pretty good.

Sage, Rosemary & Thyme Container

Salvia officinalis 'Tricolor'--Tricolor Sage (Used it fresh or dry it for herb blends, teas or potpourris.)
Rosmarinus officinalis 'Barbeque'--Upright Rosemary (Use it fresh or dried in herb blends, teas or potpourris.)
Thymus x citriodorus--Lemon Scented Thyme (Use it fresh or dried in herb blends, teas or potpourris.)

Hopefully I can bring this container inside and it will survive in a south facing window for the winter.

Herbs de Provence Container

Thymus vulgaris 'Narrow-Leaf French'--Narrow-Leaf French Thyme
Ociumum basilicum 'Spicy Globe'--Spicy Globe Basil
Satureja hortensis--Summer Savory
Rosmarinus officinalis 'Prostratus'--Prostrate Rosemary
Lavandula angustifolia 'Thumbelina Leigh'--English Lavender

I think I will make a little blend of Herbs de Provence to give as gifts.

A Pot of Silver Herbs Container

Helichrysum italicum--Dwarf Curry Plant
Salvia officinalis 'Berggarten'--Berggarten Sage
Thymus vulgaris 'Hi Ho Silver'--Silver Thyme
Thymus pseudolanuginosus--Wooly Thyme

I think the only thing I would say about this container is that the wooly thyme was overtaken by the Berggarten sage.  So it was not as good as I thought it would be.  Otherwise the other herbs were outstanding.

Salads and Sauces Container

Allium schoenoprasum--Chives
Anethum graveolens 'Fernleaf'--Dwarf dill
Poterium saguisorba--Salad Burnet
Artemisia dracunculus var. sativa--French Tarragon

There was also a choice between Anthriscus cerefolium chervil or Coriandrum sativum cilantro and neither of those survived for too long in the container.  They are both short lived even in a container.  You can dry everything remaining in this container for winter use with the exception of the French tarragon that I would preserve in vinegar and then you can use the tarragon in the vinegar like you would use fresh.

So as you can plainly see, my herbs in containers were a success.  BTW, they do get morning sun and afternoon shade most days.  Most of my mints did very well too.  That is the only place for mint is in a container!

As August (Wow!) approaches, you should have been harvesting in your herb garden and your herbal containers throughout the season.  If you are just starting now as it looks like I am, never fear just take it container by container and look for recipes on this blog or another favorite herb site.  Here is a post I did in August last year with a lot of links you can use called Herbal Harvesting and Preserving Again!

Around the middle of August you should start thinking about herbs you would like to bring inside (lemon verbena, rosemarys or scented geraniums) in containers that will not survive winter.  It is tough to dig them out when they are going so well, but you should at least have a game plan.

So that's your pep talk, herbally speaking!  That was what I needed!  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be!  We are still hot here, but it is finally summer!  Tomatoes are finally ripening and the 'Fish' pepper that we are growing for the Herb Society of America and the 2016 Herb of the Year finally has multiple peppers on it finally.  I will talk about that next time or maybe the 2015 Herb of the Year, Savory.  Talk to you later! 


 

Raspberry Vinegar Recipe for Tricia Hantke!

Picked on Tuesday, November 4, 2014

I try when I can to fulfill reader's wishes for recipes, ideas, answers for their herbal questions.  Tricia Hantke asked if I could share the raspberry vinegar recipe from the same book as my raspberry jam recipe comes from.  I would be happy to do that.  As you can see from the photo I picked the last raspberries on Tuesday.  It has been a great season for the raspberry!  This vinegar recipe is from the Time-Life Series The Good Cook Preserving by the Editors of Time-Life Books from 1981.

"Raspberry Vinegar
This vinegar, diluted with warm water, is an old remedy for sore throats.  When there were colds about, it was often taken around as a nightcap to children in boarding schools.  It is served in Yorkshire with Yorkshire pudding, as a sweet.

To make about 1 quart [l liter]

________________________________________________________________

2 lb.                                                  raspberries, ripe and dry (about               1 kg.

                                                        4 pints [2 liters])

________________________________________________________________

2 1/2 cups                                        malt vinegar                                             625 ml.

________________________________________________________________

about                                               sugar                                                       about

4 cups                                                                                                             1 liter

________________________________________________________________

Put the berries into a wide-necked jar and mash them well with a wooden spoon; then pour the cold vinegar onto them and leave, covered, for six days.  Stir the mixture each day.

   Now strain the raspberries through a jelly bag without pressing, and measure the liquid.  Measure 2 cups [1/2 liter] of sugar to every 2-1/2 cups [625 ml.] of liquid, and stir together over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Boil gently for 10 minutes, removing any scum that rises.  Leave until cold, then pour into bottles and cork firmly.

Gertrude Mann

Berry Cooking"

The only suggestion I would make is to sterilize the jar you use.  The vinegar should be OK on the shelf for six months or so.  Hope this is what you were looking for, Tricia.  I'm always here to answer your herbal questions.  It is sunny but cool here.  A brief warmup and then the Polar Vortex is coming!  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later.

Herbal Preserving--Making Herbal Vinegar 101!

Salad Burnet, Lovage and Chives Cut for An Herbal Vinegar

Make Sure Your Herbs Are Washed and Dried Very Well

Boiled Water Left in Jar for 10 Minutes of Sterilizing

Herbs Ready to Go into Jar

Plastic Wrap or Waxed Paper Between Lid and Jar

Write Herb Combination and Day Made on Lid

Place Jar on Shelf Away from Light and Mark on Calendar to Check

I'm sure I have talked about making herbal vinegars.  It is my opinion one of the easiest ways to preserve your herbal harvest.  I would just caution you not to get too carried away.  It is very easy to do, the carried away bit.  Herbal vinegars do make great Christmas gifts.  You have lots of time if you start now.   As I continue to repeat, we are down to the wire here in the 'Burgh.  I will be going out in the garden today to double check items that still need to be cut particularly German chamomile flowers.  It has been a remarkable year.

So here is my how to on herbal vinegars.  You will need nonreactive utensils (such as wooden spoons, stainless steel spoons, glass measuring cups (for measuring the vinegar), plastic measuring cups (for measuring the herbs or fruit, plastic or stainless measuring spoons for measuring the spices), a canning funnel or a piece of paper folded into a funnel and a regular plastic funnel for narrow necked bottles) and pans (enamel or stainless steel are fine, just not aluminum), jars of every shape and size (I use mainly quart canning jars.), waxed paper or plastic wrap if using metal lids.

There are different methods of making herbal vinegar.  Some people heat both additions (herbs, fruits and spices) and vinegar together, some people heat just the vinegar and some people do not heat either.  I heat the vinegar when I am making raspberry vinegar and do not heat either when making herbal vinegar.  If you would like to speed up the process, you can heat the vinegar just to where you see tiny bubbles (one or two) and then immediately take it off the burner.

I picked my three herbs, salad burnet, lovage and chives.  This choice was from my favorite book this time of year, Herbal Treasures by Phyllis Shaudys.  I swished them in water and then dried them using a salad spinner and paper toweling.  This takes at least 2 or 3 hours for them to dry completely and I change paper towels a couple of times.  Once dried, I measured out one cup of each herb and placed them in a bowl.

Then I filled a quart canning jar with boiling water.  Set a time for ten minutes and then pour the water out.  If you are doing a lot of vinegar, you can put the jars through the dishwasher and then just leave them inside until you have your herbs ready.  Some books say you should dry the jars in an oven on low heat.  I just dried my jar (since it was only one) with a paper towel.  It will be hot!

Using a canning funnel (if you are using a canning jar) or a wooden spoon if you are using an narrow necked bottle, put your herbs, fruit or spice in the jar.  You then pour your vinegar into the jar making sure that your additions are covered.  They do rise to the top.  Just do your best.  BTW, a quart canning jar holds 3-1/2 cups of vinegar not 4 cups!

If you are using metal lids, make sure you place plastic wrap or waxed paper between the lid and jar.  Also the formula for herbs to vinegar is usually two cups of vinegar to one cup of herbs or four (3-1/2 cups) of vinegar to 2 cups of herbs or in my case 1-1/2 cups of herbs.  Just make sure once the lid is on, that you mark what kind of combination it is and what date you made it.  Then I mark on my refrigerator calendar when to check it.  I usually start checking it in two weeks.  If you do not heat your vinegar, it may take an extra week or so to be ready.  I place the jars in my basement away from light.

BTW, I would only use white distilled vinegar for cleaning.  Here is a Lemon Verbena Glass and Surface Cleaner from a post I did for Mother Earth Living.  If you have a basil harvest, sweet basil combines well with apple cider vinegar, lemon basil with white wine vinegar and cinnamon or Thai with rice vinegar.  I really did love the lemon herb vinegar recipe I made last year from Herbal Treasures called Phyl's Lemon Herb Vinegar.  Another one of my favorite ways to preserve nasturtiums is to make a vinegar.  I did a post in 2009 about Nasturtium Peppercorn Vinegar from my herbal sister, Kathleen Gips who has happily retired from owning the Village Herb Shop in Chagrin Falls, OH.  One way to preserve tarragon, part of the family of the 2014 Herb of the Year, Artemisia is in vinegar.  So here is a post I did in 2012 about my pathetic tarragon harvest and it will give you the simple way of preserving tarragon in vinegar so it can be used through the winter like fresh.  Tarragon does not dry well.

A short list of my favorite books with about herbal vinegars or with recipes:

Herbal Vinegar by Maggie Oster, Storey Communications, Inc., 1994
The Complete Vinegar Book by Kathy (Kathleen) Gips, Natural Garden Press, No date
Herbal Treasures by Phyllis Shaudys, Storey Communications, Inc., 1990

So hopefully you can see that it is really simple, but really effective to preserve your herbal harvest in vinegar to enjoy yourself or give as gifts.  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later. 

Raspberry Jam and Grape Jelly Take a Selfie!

This is my life at the moment!  When you grow fruit, it is sometimes hit or miss whether you get anything!  This year despite the very cold winter and the stink bugs, we have had a bumper crop of raspberries.  The jury is still out on the grapes.  They are still being cut and detangled from cat hair.  Yes, we have a feral cat that likes to climb especially the grape arbor and rests up there.  The Herbal Husband was cutting grape bunches the other day and out comes the cat.  Scared the you know what out of him!

So I will be posting sporadically.  The temperatures are starting to drop at night here in southwestern PA, so you should be doing something with your basils in particular.  Everything else should be OK.  I have my list of herbal jellies I will be making.  Just look at my chores list because I will try to change it to keep you thinking about herbs that need to be harvested.

We have been very cool already!  So I have had to scramble to make sure that the herb garden hasn't started to die back!  Lots to think about!  So hope you are having a great day wherever you may be!  Talk to you later!

Let the Garlic Scapes Escape and a Drenching Experience!

Time to Get All Stinky in the Garden!

Used the Old Broken Clippers and Had to Have Gloves On!

Hey Dorothy, Here is the Top of a Walking or Egyptian Onion!

Sometimes I draw the short straw, herbally speaking.  It was time to cut the scapes from the garlic.  Lots of people love to eat the scapes.  Here is a recipe from Epicurious for Pasta with Garlic-Scape Pesto.  I have to admit that I haven't made this recipe and probably won't, but that shouldn't stop you from trying if you have extra scapes escaping!  Because of my GERD, I have to be very careful with the amount of garlic and onions I eat.  It just can be very harsh for me.  BTW, we use the scapes as trim around our fences to keep deer from browsing.  Doesn't work forever but it does keep them at bay for a bit!

So this is the last act before the garlic will be dug in mid to late July here in the 'Burgh.  The Herbal Husband and I have a differing view on when the garlic is ready.  I say when there is some green and brown in the stalks.  He thinks that it is OK to leave them until they are all brown.  That happened last year because of too much rain and when they were dug, the paper that forms around the bulb had split which makes them harder to store for long periods of time.  I even have a friend that digs them when they are green.  So you decide.  I'll try to remember to show ours to you when we dig them.

My buddy, Dorothy asked whether this was like a walking garlic.  I haven't heard that term but we do have Egyptian walking onions.  This third photo is the top of those.  When the bulblets are heavy enough the stem bends down and the bulblets plant themselves in the ground.  A couple of years ago, we had hundreds of these and here is the post I did about that experience called Too Much of a Good Thing, I Think!  I also found this website for additional information on the Egyptian walking onion.   Hope this helps you, Dorothy!  Please if you have any other questions, I'm here to help always!

We have the ickies and stickies big time here.  You stand still and are drenched.  Speaking of drenched, we both got drenched last night in a microburst on the back patio.  The big figs fell off their rollers and knocked down the potted tomatoes.  In turn as I was trying to roll out the awning, I was drenched by the water coming off said awning.  There will be no video fortunately of that turn of events.  I haven't been that wet for a long time!  Every plant was OK.  The 'Cherokee Purple' tomato was a bit shocked, but no fruit was lost and the figs survived their falls!  BTW, this is my 1,400 post!  Gads and I'm still talking!  Who knew?  Hope you had a great day!  Talk to you later.

Herbal Blooms All Over and a Bit of Vanilla Too!

Bumble Bee Enjoys the White Rugosa Rose!

Chives That Are Smaller Than Regular Chives!

Lyre Leaved Sage!

Lovage in Bloom!

'Coral Reef' Dianthus!

The Linear Leaf Thyme Has Escaped!

Angelica in Bloom!

'Vanilla' African Marigolds!

Can You Tell I Live With An Architect?

The Apothecary's Rose Is Starting to Bloom!

Well, as you can see from the photos above, we have started to bloom here in the herb garden and surrounding gardens.  The white rugosa rose (Rosa rugosa 'Alba') has been blooming for the last couple of weeks.  I has gotten very tall and the blooms are at the top.  I'm going to have to cut it back and get it to a more manageable size.  As you know though, we don't like to prune here until it's way too late!  Enough said!

I have lost the tag for the chives and I was hoping looking through some of my herb catalogs were jog my herbal memory!  Ha!  Not so fast!  Any way these chives are a very tidy clump and have flowered for a past couple of weeks as well.  I will trimming chive blossoms soon.  Oh, I should be making a bit of chive blossom vinegar!  A great way to get a mild onion flavor into your salad dressings and savory recipes.

This lyred leaved sage (Salvia lyrata) which is a perennial was purchased at the annual plant sale by The Herbal Husband.  Good job, sweetie!  The lovage (Levisticum officinale) is in bloom and the seeds can be used in breads, soups and stews and cookies.  I found a cookie recipe in one of my herbal cookbooks.  Now if I can find it again, I will make them and share the recipe if they are good.

There can't not be enough Dianthus in the garden!  Plus the bonus is that they are an edible flower!  This particular one is called 'Coral Reef'.  Ideal for a rock garden!  Oops!  Well, we will see if it survives, but until then I'll just enjoy the fragrance and the blooms of this dianthus!  It arrived just recently from England, my favorite place!

This Linear Leaf Thyme (Thymus pannonicus 'Linear-Leaf Lilac') started in the concrete container in my herb garden and it has escaped!  It is doing wonderfully well and I won't rock the herbal boat trying to get it back into the container!  Going with the herbal flow this season!

The Angelica (Angelica archangelica) used to be everywhere on the far side of the herb garden.  Now not so much.  We are going to let it seed again once it stops blooming.  Remember be careful if you are photosensitive to plants.  Don't cut this when it is hot and on a bright sunny day.  Remember to wear long sleeves and pants when cutting this back.

Yes, we do have some vanilla.  'Vanilla' marigolds (Tagetes erecta) that is!  We had coupons for the local garden center and we came home with a flat of these!  So you can tell I live with an architect, can't you?  Supposedly they will bloom all summer into fall and add a bright spot in my green landscape in the back gardens!  There were already beneficial insects buzzing around them!

Finally, my favorite rose is blooming.  It took a hit from the winter, but survived!  The Apothecary's Rose (Rosa gallica).  A very ancient rose and one that every herbalist must have in his or her garden.  I make rose petal jelly from this rose.  Maybe not this year.  We will see.

So there you have a rundown of what's blooming in my herb garden and beyond!  What's blooming in your herb garden?  We are getting storms later today.  Hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you may be.  I'll continue sharing my England trip next time.

Finished Herbal Vinegar!

I started with this jar and cinnamon basil, purple basil, parsley, tarragon, oregano and chives on September 18th.

I placed it on the windowsill for about two weeks and then two weeks in the basement.

Yesterday we tried it and deemed it ready! The purple basil really added a lovely color to it. I will use it in salad dressings and beef stews and homemade vegetable soup. Herbal vinegar is very easy and delicious and a great way to preserve the herbal harvest.

A Great Day for Herbal Salad and Herbal Vinegar

It has been beautiful weather since Ike blew through on Sunday. We were out collecting the bounty in the garden this morning, including beans, tomatoes, peppers and basil since we had reports that the temps may be in the forties tonight. Basil doesn't like those temps.

It was a great day for a tomato, basil and avocado salad for lunch.

The tomato at the base of the salad is a Cherokee Purple, my favorite heirloom tomato.

It is a very beautiful and meaty tomato. Yummy!

I also thought it was a good day to make some herbal vinegar because I had some extra cinnamon basil and purple basil. I added parsley, tarragon, chives and oregano to the mix.

Sterilize a quart jar for 10 minutes with boiling water, then add your herbs and white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar. I would not use white distilled vinegar. Only use that kind of vinegar for cleaning. I also would not use apple cider vinegar either.

After putting your herbs and vinegar in the jar, put plastic over the jar in between the lid and jar. Place it on a sunny window sill for at least 2 weeks and after that I would test it periodically until you like the taste and then strain out the herbs and store in a cool, dry spot.